Integrating
Technology into U.S.
The American
Revolution
(1754-1783)
My thoughts...
After
completing chapter 4 in The American
Vision on the American Revolution, Mrs. Wright would like for her students
to present the material they have covered during the past week in some kind of
presentation involving all class members.
After reviewing the social studies, and technology standards, she decided
to introduce the class to a class Wiki.
By doing this, Mrs. Wright hopes to engage students in a new
collaborative effort, have them review information they learned during the
American Revolution chapter, develop some new technology skills, and engage in
some critical thinking along the way.
By
completing the American Revolution in class, creating the class wiki, learning
to add pictures, photos, or sound or movie, students in this class will have
completed work involving the following standards:
Social
Studies Standard 3: Trace the chronology of events leading to the
American Revolution, including the French and Indian War, the Stamp Act, the
Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, the Battles of Lexington and Concord
AHSGE: I-1D, III-1A
Technology
(as defined by our school system’s Technology Standards)…
Using
these standards as guidelines, my 10th grade class will be divided
into groups and assigned a particular task within the class wiki on the
American Revolution. They will learn how
to create the wiki with the classroom teacher.
They will also be assigned additional tasks for the wiki including
sound, clipart, and/or photography.
In
addition to the class wiki, the same information groups could also be engaged
in the creation of an American Revolution Newspaper. Students will use their knowledge of the
American Revolution and technology skills for their creations and will share
their final projects with the other 10th and 11th grade
classes in the building.
By
collaboratively creating the class wiki on the American Revolution, the entire
class will have the chance to be actively involved, both individually and as a
group. The requirements will include
creating both new pages and editing the work of others in the class, thus
giving students the chance to experience the collaborative nature of a wiki and
test their editing skills at the same time.
Incorporating
the use of technology into the 10th grade curriculum is a natural
collaboration of need and interest.
Engaging students in history is not an easy task and technology tools
can spark their interest. Completing a
technology project within the curriculum engages several of the intelligences,
including Linguistic Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, and Interpersonal
Intelligence.
Instead
of focusing on making a wiki or creating a webpage, the experience will
actively engage the learners throughout the process, focusing on their
strengths.
Wikispaces
has the potential to support and structure communities where individuals come
together to share, learn, and create and collaborate with each other. The diverse communities that can form through
wikis can be a source of creativeness and inventiveness. Recognizing contributors as individuals with
unique experience as members of a group allows for a personalized learning
experience while also learning as part of a community.
While
recognizing the advantages of integrating technology into the curriculum in relation
to the multiple intelligences, the community of learners, the collaborative
efforts, and the creative opportunities, one must not forget one other very
basic reason—the fun of the project!
Given the choice of writing a several page paper on an aspect of the
American Revolution or working collaboratively on a class wiki space then
linking to a class webpage for addition information, which option do you think
they would choose?
Creating
a new learning community in a 10th grade class opens up endless
possibilities. Using wikis, blogs,
WebPages, and more offers classroom teachers and students creative
possibilities to incorporate curriculum content with new learning
environments. By starting small and
thinking big, students and teachers will be amazed at the end results.
Before
all of this is put into motion I would know to get a parental form for the
parents to fill out and also I would know to educate students about digital
citizenship, etiquette, etc.
Please see this link for my wiki assignment on the American Revolution: http://wrightcyberlearningadventure.wikispaces.com/
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